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Paul Lieberman
from New York

Cole, the "Gangster Squad" was different from the "Hat Squad." The Hat Squad was the unofficial name given four guys in the LAPD's Robbery Division who operated a bit later and much more in the open. The Gangster Squad, formed right after WWII, in 1946, was designed basically to be invisible while targeting the mob -- those men were never supposed to make arrests, for instance, and most wanted to take their secrets to the grave.

John, no question there were moral and legal dangers with such a shadowy operation. A different secretive Los Angeles police squad a decade earlier, in the 1930s, served a corrupt city administration by bugging a vocal reformer and then planting a bomb in the car of his chief investigator -- the lieutenant who headed that unit was sentenced to San Quentin as a result and the city's mayor was recalled. The Gangster Squad guys were hired in the wake of that scandal, part of the generation that was supposed to remake the LAPD, though that did not happen quickly or easily. And while they harassed the mobsters every way they could, they certainly never killed anyone...though Mickey Cohen did complain to federal authorities that one (Jerry Wooters) threatened to shoot him.

Cole and George: my main character, Sgt. Jack O'Mara, loved "Mulholland Falls," and thought it quite true to life. He disliked "L.A. Confidential," however, because so many of the cops in it were depicted as crooked and even killers. In fact too many L.A. cops were that crooked earlier on, at least through the 1930s, but by the late '40s -- and certainly during the tenure of Chief William Parker -- a series of crime commissions (including the famous Kefauver Committee) noted that the outrageous corruption in the LA area was in the turf patrolled by the County Sheriff while the LAPD was way out in front in combating organized crime. FYI, I thought L.A. Confidential was terrific -- few understand the Noir mindset better than James Ellroy.

Thanks for listening in. All the background you ask about is in the book.

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